1st December 2024 held at Foxy’s, Brunton Park
Resolutions:
1 – To receive the reports of the Society’s board and the audited financial statements for the period ending 31st
FOR 354, AGAINST 8
2 – To elect to the board of the society:
Billy Atkinson FOR 291, AGAINST 64
Kieron Bulman FOR 303, AGAINST 45
Dan MacLennan FOR 315, AGAINST 40
Riegan Thompson FOR 315, AGAINST 41
All Elected
3 – It is hereby resolved that subject to the provisions of section 84 of the 2014 Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act, the members of the Society shall not require an audit for the accounts covering the current financial year ending on 31 July, 2025 when they are presented to the next AGM held in 2025/26. NOTE: An independent financial examination shall be undertaken in its place.
FOR 326, AGAINST 34
4 – To authorise the Society Board to fix the remuneration of the auditors
FOR 351, AGAINST 7
Minutes:
Board members in attendance: Dan MacLennan (chair), Claire Winder (vice-chair), Chris Armstrong, Billy Atkinson, Kieron Bulman, Mike Denovellis, Ross Parkinson, Martin Robson
Billy Atkinson paid tribute to several people who have served the Trust down the years: Alan Steel, Kate Rowley (two of the original signatories when the Trust was formed in 2001), Brooks Mileson (who made a £600,000 donation in 2005), Norman Steel (whose loan allowed the purchase of the final tranche of shares in 2006), Peter Harrington, who has served as treasurer since the early days of the organisation and finally Alastair Woodcock who is retiring as secretary after 18 years in the role. A presentation was made to Alastair. Dave Noble had also decided to step down with effect from this AGM.
Ross Parkinson then made a Powerpoint presentation explaining a new strategy for fan engagement. This will involve both physical and online meetings. There will be member meetings at the start of each season, the AGM in mid-season and then an end of season meeting. In addition Twitter/X spaces will be utilised for further engagement. Teams will be utilised for online meetings every two months. Emerging platforms like Instagram and Bluesky are being looked at for further engagement opportunities.
Tim Graham asked a question about plans to organise social events during the evening. Ross said social events were planned and the increasing amount of venues inside Brunton Park made this a more attractive and viable opportunity.
Alastair said turnout at this AGM was just over 33%, up on the average for recent years.
A question was asked about match day presence. Dan said the plan was to have a presence in the fan zone using a container that the club were acquiring. This would hopefully begin during January 2025.
Dan explained the new process that was recently agreed for responding to fan and member queries. Most of these would be taken to the regular CUSG meetings, but the most important of these would be taken to the weekly leadership meetings at Brunton Park that our rep Matt attends.
A question from the floor suggested the board did not have a high enough profile. Dan accepted more work needed to be done on that and a regular presence in the Fan Zone on match days should help familiarise fans with the board and the roles they fill. Tim suggested from the floor that board members could help to raise their profile further by doing ‘Meet the Board’ style videos. This had already been discussed, said Dan, and was in the pipeline.
A question about plaques was asked online. About 66% of the plaques had been installed now, with photos emailed out to those who had bought them. The remaining plaques should be installed in the next few weeks.
Simon Clarkson asked about finances and expenditure. What were the Trust’s plans for further investment into the club?
Ross said opportunities to fund projects at the club were thin on the ground due to the huge investment of the new owners so the focus had switched to sponsorship. All the new match day lounge prizes that were being awarded to members were being paid for by the Trust. The existing boardroom prize was not. This had been allocated to a lucky winner and a guest for each home game with the club’s agreement. Georgie Kelly was being sponsored again this season. The Trust have put over £1k towards support of the women’s team in the past 2 years.
Alastair summarised the financial performance of the Trust over the past year. Turnover was up by approx £4,000 and a surplus of over £7k had been made after a small deficit last year. A summary of the accounts for 2023-24 can be found on our website HERE (link).
Dan reminded the meeting about the online shop on our website which was generating additional income. He also made reference to an upcoming fundraising initiative to acquire two defibrilators at the ground. More details on that will be coming soon.
A question about membership numbers and the relevancy of the Trust was put from the floor. Dan said membership was now at 1,160 which contrasted to about 400 members 3 years ago. There had been a small drop since the end of the last financial year. He asked for ideas on how to increase membership.
Riegan Thompson’s election to the board brings the average age down and it was hoped he could help attract younger fans to join.
Dan addressed the issue of ‘relevancy’. He said we now enjoyed a very productive relationship with the club’s ownership. We had got used to working with them over the last year, he said. Billy added that changes at the club over the past year were making us more relevant than ever. We remain a shareholder, albeit with a reduced holding. We are the only fans group with the highest level of access at the club. He said the owners embrace the concept of a fans’ trust.
Dan reminded members about the discount they have at the club shop.
George Graves asked if any forums were planned with head coach Mike Williamson. Dan said these were at the planning stage but no dates had been firmed up. It was expected both Mike and new sporting director Rob Clarkson would attend. Dan promised to raise this at the next CUSG meeting.
Tim again asked about Riegan’s role on the new board. Younger fans were now attending games in bigger numbers and Riegan said, as his statement had suggested, he was hoping to work with younger fans and get them more involved with the Trust. Some good work had already been done with the Warwick Road Enders group and this should continue.
A recording of the AGM stream will be available on the CUST website in due course.
The meeting was then declared closed.
